(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to gaskets for a refrigerator furniture unit and the like, and more specifically to a gasket for providing a seal between an outer door, inner door; and cabinet of the refrigerator furniture unit.
(2) Description of Related Art
The patent application EP 905464 in the name of the same Applicant describes a plastic gasket for refrigerator furniture units and the like provided with door and an inner door, having a bellows seal portion which forms a sealed closure between the door and the furniture, the profile and the seal portion being joined together or integral as a single piece produced by means of coextrusion of two materials having a different rigidity so as to allow, if necessary, easy separation of the seal portion from the profile along their joining zone, said profile having a groove able to receive a replacement bellows seal portion, said groove being defined by a pair of walls which extend vertically or obliquely from a base formed with a substantially C-shaped cross-section comprising two horizontal upper and lower sections and being elastically deformable as a result of an elbow piece made of soft material and formed by means of coextrusion on the cross-section itself, this elbow piece therefore acting as a hinge so as to allow elastic splaying of said C-shaped cross-section so as to receive by means of snap-engagement the edge of said inner door inside the cross-section itself.
For the purposes of installation, the profile with the coextruded seal is advantageously provided in the form of a rectangular frame welded at the corners and then assembled together with inner door and door, as is for example described also in the European patents Nos. 146,994 and 319,087 in the name of the same Applicant.
More particularly, according to the patent application EP 905464, the profile with the seal is welded so as to form a rectangular frame which may thus be mounted on an inner door of the same shape, generally with perimetral dimensions 0.5–3 mm smaller than the internal dimension delimited by the vertical section of the base of the profile.
This assembly is made possible by means of shearing of the lower horizontal section of said base, performed automatically during extrusion (or by acting on the end part of the ready-cut portions) to a depth of 3–5 mm and over the whole of its extension, thereby making it possible to avoid welding in the corners of this section. Each section therefore is excluded from welding and can therefore be splayed independently, by means of its hinging point, through angles even greater than 90° so as to allow insertion of the inner door.
The operation of splaying of the abovementioned section is generally performed manually by acting on the lower section of all four sides of the frame through an angle sufficient for positioning of the inner door. Once this operation has been performed, the sections are released and the hinge causes them to snap-engage back into their initial position, locking the inner door in the C-shaped cross-section of the base of the profile.
The profile and the inner door thus assembled are then placed on the door and the whole assembly is fixed by introducing foam into the cavity between door and inner door.
EP-A-0152989 and DE 3022381 describe seals extending around the periphery of a door for refrigerators, comprising a resiliently flexible sealing portion and a lip made of a stiffer material.
According to the objects of the present invention, it is desirable that a profile of the type described above should be in particular suitable for automated assembly, without manual operations which slow down production considerably and obviously increase costs. However, with regard to the use of automated systems, it must be remembered that the profile, when it is inserted into the inner door, form together with the latter an assembled system which must be able to withstand handling, including any sudden stresses imparted by the machinery, without causing any mutual displacement of profile and inner door.